Understanding the 4 types of questions in the Socratic Meathod. Examples and an understanding of who Socrates was.

Sales Questions According to Socrates  

Applying the Four Keys of Socratic Questioning to Selling 

It’s a warm day as you cross the city square with all of the bustle and people on market day. As you go about your shopping a short ragged looking man is noted standing in the square talking to himself. This must happen quite often, as the crowd seems oblivious of him.

Later you turn to leave a shop and there he is asking you a question. He is very engaging and you find yourself drawn into the conversation which very quickly brings out how you see a current situation. Although he never really takes a position, you find yourself questioning how you see that situation. As you end your conversation and leave the square, the ideas his questions have planted are whirring around in your mind. You have just encountered the philosopher Socrates!

So who is this Greek from 450 BC and why does he have such an impact on us in the 21^st century? ……As you look back over history the influence of Socrates is found in Shakespeare, Freud and modern sales. And yet the majority of our population has never really been exposed to his highly effective way of teaching, which is his method of questioning!

To understand why he is the farther of questioning, one needs to understand how he viewed the world.

• First Socrates never wrote anything down! Why, because he believed you were born with the “truth” in you. It was the purpose of education to bring out “your truth”. Therefore writings imparted someone else’s “truth” not yours.
• Second, he discovered that having one question a current belief or view would cause them to reconsider their view or belief. (The basis of modern persuasion)
• Third, by teaching others how to question themselves as well as others, all would then find “their truth”.

As a student attending Socrates’ school, you did not have “books”, rather you would be in a continual dialog of questions and more questions until one could no longer question the answer! This is how one found their “truth”.  By the way, most of what we know about Socrates is through his students writings such as Plato.

So as you review the plays of Shakespeare, the influence of Socrates comes through. Sigmund Freud found the Socratic methods a must in developing his psycho therapy and modern salespeople utilize the Socratic methods to influence clients.

“Ok, what is this Socratic Method of Questioning?”  

We break the methods into four types or uses:

1.      Answer any question with another question: This is one of the basic premises and keeps you in control of the conversation. 

2.      Utilizing open questions to discover values and beliefs: Modern Persuasion is based on understanding values and beliefs and either aligning with them or changing them.

3.      Framing questions to direct: This is used to direct conversations and thinking in a predetermined direction.

4.      Framing question to overcome resistance: This assists in overcoming resistance and gathering the true information about a given situation.

“Great, how do I apply these to my selling or my communications? They never taught me this is school or college!” 

Answering a question with a question sounds very simple in theory, yet I have witnessed top CEO’s stammer and stumble on this. Some simple examples would be:

“Yes, my name is Harlan, yours is?” 

“That’s an interesting idea, how do you see it?”

The challenge is to execute this in a positive way and not come across as the “Inquisitor”. In your next conversation with a friend or associate, see how many times you can sequentially do this in a conversation. Most stumble at 3-5 times.

Utilizing open questions to discover values and beliefs is new ground for many people. One big barrier is our societal taboos that say it’s impolite to ask. Yet to really understand others we must understand something about their values and beliefs.

“Help me understand why you feel that way?”

“What do you feel brings you to that conclusion?”

This form of questions takes some skill and phrasing depending upon the situation. You need to be reading the people and the situation to avoid a negative response.

Framing questions to direct is a basic persuasion tool. If we need a conversation to go in given direction or require certain information, the frame will accomplish this.

“How do the operational costs factor into this?”

“How do the operators concerns affect this?”

“How do the time tables affect this?”

As you can see, by changing a few words the conversation can be directed in different directions.

Framing questions to overcome resistance is not well known. Yet it is a very powerful tool when dealing with delicate issues or you feel information is being withheld. The premise is to frame the question around erroneous or skewed information that causes the other party to correct you. This then brings the issue out and reduces the resistance.

“I understand GYI has been your primary vendor, mainly because of price, why is that?”

(You know GYI is not the primary, but you want to understand how they view pricing)

“I heard that your position on the new bill has changed, what caused this?”

(You know his position is the same, but you want to understand why his position exists.)

This type of frame requires some pre-knowledge and an understanding of the person. What happens is they correct you and divulge the information you want very willingly. If asked directly, they would give you a deflecting answer.

There you go, the four keys of the Socratic Method of Questioning. This is a very simplistic overview, yet should give you a better feel for the art.

As one considers the skill required to execute these methods, it becomes easier to understand why we invest 20 hours on questioning in our 40 hour mastery programs. Yet the outcomes of mastering these skills are unlimited!

For more on the Socratic Method or other selling and management skills, visit our sites at www.BusArc.com or www.hgoergerassoc.com. Our blog is www.blogbusarc.blogspot.com .

Harlan Goerger